After 3 months of regular dry fasting, my wrinkles and grey hairs disappeared. This makes me wonder why even pay for stem cell therapy when you can generate them at home for free!
Can dry fasting regenerate stem cells? Dry fasting creates a spike in autophagy, a metabolic process that consumes un-needed proteins, organelles, and cells in your body, including white blood cells. This decline in white blood cells triggers dormant stem cells into regeneration mode.
Stem cells have been long hailed as the fountain of youth—think of all that poor sheep’s placenta!
However, there’s a much easier way to get a stem cell boost, and it’s an inside job.
How does dry fasting boost stem cell production?
It isn’t just dry fasting that regenerates stem cells—both dry and water fasting do this. Fasting triggers a series of metabolic processes in your body—including a spike in white blood cell production, autophagy, human growth hormone, as well as stem cell regeneration.
Dry fasting is 3x to 5x more efficient than water fasting, and 1 day of dry fasting reaps the health benefits of 3 days of water fasting.
This means after a 1 day (24 hour) dry fast, you get the stem cell rejuvenation of a 3 day (72 hours) water fast.
Why does this happen? During water fasting, the lack of food in your body, or glucose, induces your system to use fat as a source of fuel which creates ketones.
Ketones are the beautiful chemicals everyone raves about and why many people are on a keto diet to lose weight. 
During dry fasting, the lack of water in your body induces your system to also use fat as a source of fuel; however, it creates metabolic water, which makes even more ketones in the body, replicating the effects of deep sleep ketosis.
Deeper levels of ketosis signal to your body that resources are even more scarce, and your body goes into alert mode—it’s all about survival, and now your white blood cells get broken down along with the fat, ketones, and glucose.
This depletion of white blood cells induces the reduction of the enzyme PKA in your system, which is the primary factor in stem cell renewal and pluripotency—the ability for one cell to become many cells. Decreased PKA in the system gives ‘the nod’ to stem cells to start increasing like crazy.
This study on mice and human stem cells shows that prolonged water fasting of 2 to 4 days enables stem cells to regenerate and develop into multiple types of new cells for your body.
Conducted by the University of California in 2014, it’s the first evidence of how fasting triggers stem cell regeneration and rebuilds an entirely new immune system for chemotherapy patients.
Meanwhile, a process called autophagy does the prep work for rebuilding your system.
Autophagy means ‘self-eating, and this natural phenomenon consumes damaged organelles, proteins, viruses, and bacteria to maintain your body’s cellular health.
A study done by Kuma & Mizushima talks about autophagy as an intercellular recycling system. Autophagy eats up inefficient cells, leaving vacant space for plenty of healthy new stem cells to flush the system.
You were born with plenty of stem cells which worked hard and long to find damaged cells and tissues to repair. Stem cells reproduce in your body but age as you age, becoming less effective with each new generation and less potent over time.
Dry fasting can help to boost those depleting and degrading cells and get them up to standard, restoring your body’s youth and vitality.
Can we reverse aging with dry fasting?
Since dry fasting increases pluripotential stem cells (embryonic stem cells) and embryonic stem cells are considered immortal ( indefinitely proliferate and regenerate into any tissue of an organism), then, theoretically at least, it’s possible to reverse aging.
Fasting has been shown to increase the quality of life in many lower lifeforms. Chickens that usually live up to 6 years, when fasted lived up to 18-21 years; the same scientist conducted an experiment with aging hens that no longer laid eggs but found that they started laying eggs again after fasting.
It’s not just an extension of life but the quality of life. These egg-laying chickens became younger, and some of the eggs were also huge and of excellent quality.
Other examples of experiments include insects that ordinarily live 3-4 weeks, that lived 3-4 years when fasted. Bulls that ordinarily lived 3-4 years lived 12 years when fasted. Following this precedent, the life-extension of fasting humans is 250 years!
However, the general consensus is that dry fasting regularly can extend life, youth, and vitality by 15–25 years. Looking at some dry fasting in forums, you will find plenty of people swearing by significant age reversal, some of up to 40 years younger.
Check out my article Dry Fasting: The Anti-Aging Miracle on how fasting affects aging.
How to increase stem cell production with dry fasting
Include vitamin B3 into your diet
Studies show that giving mice vitamin B3 helped regenerate their stem cells. B3 is an essential nutrient and supports aid metabolism.
Mice taking niacin saw amazing anti-aging effects, including brain growth, muscle regeneration, and skin cells, with longer life spans than the mice that didn’t get B3.
Another study that gave mice B3 for several months noticed improved insulin sensitivity, less weight, and more energy.
Include foods rich in Vitamin B3 or niacin, such as fish, meat, poultry, sunflower seeds, peanuts, coffee, tahini, mushrooms, and fortified cereal, into your meals. Alternatively, take a B3 supplement.
Increase Fasting Quantity
Increase the amount of fasting you do. This means more intermittent fasting, prolonged water fasting, and dry fasting of at least 24 hours a week and longer if you can work your way up to it. All of these naturally increase stem cell production. Dr. Mindy Pelz recommends changing the types of fast for your body to be in its optimal state.
Ketogenic diet in dry fasting eating window
Ketosis is the metabolic state that happens when our body runs out of its glucose reserves. It then enters the fat-burning state where our bodies use the fat stored in our liver, turning them into ketone bodies for energy. The presence of ketone bodies is the metabolic switch that stimulates stem cell regeneration and increases their function.
When our bodies are in a constant state of ketosis, even moderate amounts of fasting and exercise increase stems cells production.
A healthy ketogenic diet high in fatty foods, with moderate amounts of protein and minimal carbs, can increase the potential to regenerate stem cells. This is what the macronutrient profile of a keto diet looks like.
- 70 -75% Fat
- 20 % Protein
- 5 -10 % Carbs
Some examples of foods that are great in a ketogenic diet are avocados, eggs, nuts and seeds, fatty fish like salmon and sardines, olives, olive oil, and coconut oil.
It’s best to eat a ketogenic diet, or a diet high in fat, as the last meal before dry fasting.
Consume more turmeric
Curcumin or turmeric contains turmerone, which can induce neural stem cell proliferation. It also has other anti-inflammatory properties promoting new brain cell creation.
Eat stem cell boosting herbs
Some herbs are better than others for stem cell regeneration, especially tissue regeneration in stem cell therapy.
Take spirulina and algae supplements
Research proves mice that were fed spirulina for 28 days grew new stem cells. Spirulina promotes stem cell genesis. Both spirulina and chlorella contain omega 3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA, which promote brain and neural health and will have anti-aging effects on the body as a whole.
Stem cell therapy
Stem cell therapy is becoming more popular and commercially viable; it helps support stem cell growth and help boost overall health, making the entire system more efficient for more healthy stem cell regeneration.
(But why pay good money for this when you can do it at home for free!)
If you’re excited about how dry fasting helps with age reversal, it’s your lucky day. Because that’s precisely what I teach in my new video course, 25 Again! The Dry Fasting Lifestyle For A Younger, Slimmer You. Go check it out!
***Disclaimer: I am not a doctor/ physician, and although I have a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science, I cannot and do not hold myself to be a medical professional (“Medical Provider”). This article does not contain medical /health advice. The medical/ health information here is for general and educational purposes only. It is my opinion, based on my research and personal experience, and not a substitute for professional advice by your health care provider. Please consult with a professional before acting on the information here, and do not disregard medical advice or delay seeking medical attention because of anything you read in this article. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY OF THE INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.***
References
- Dunning, August. The Phoenix Protocol Dry Fasting for Rapid Healing and Radical Life Extension: Functional Immortality. August Dunning , 2020.
- Coutinho, Luke. Dry Fasting Miracle. EBURY PR, 2020.
- Filonov, Sergey. 20 Questions & Answers About Dry Fasting . Translated by Vera Giovanna Bani , Siberika , 2019.
- Cheng CW, Adams GB, Perin L, et al. Prolonged fasting reduces IGF-1/PKA to promote hematopoietic-stem-cell-based regeneration and reverse immunosuppression [published correction appears in Cell Stem Cell. 2016 Feb 4;18(2):291-2]. Cell Stem Cell. 2014;14(6):810-823. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2014.04.014
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140605141507.htm
- Kuma A, Mizushima N. Physiological role of autophagy as an intracellular recycling system: with an emphasis on nutrient metabolism. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2010;21(7):683-690. doi:10.1016/j.semcdb.2010.03.002
- Cantó C, Houtkooper RH, Pirinen E, et al. The NAD(+) precursor nicotinamide riboside enhances oxidative metabolism and protects against high-fat diet-induced obesity. Cell Metab. 2012;15(6):838-847. doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2012.04.022
- Bachstetter AD, Jernberg J, Schlunk A, Vila JL, Hudson C, Cole MJ, et al. (2010) Spirulina Promotes Stem Cell Genesis and Protects against LPS Induced Declines in Neural Stem Cell Proliferation. PLoS ONE 5(5): e10496. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010496
